Sommer springs into action as Basel’s saviour

Keeper aims to emulate No 1 heroes by foiling Chelsea on Thursday and putting one foot in the Europa League final

Sommer saves from Kyle Naughton as his side defeat Tottenham in the Europa League quarter-final. (Ian Kington)

EARLY last year members of the International Federation of Football History
and Statistics emerged from their information warehouse and announced who
was best at this and best at that in the 25 years since they have been
devouring worldwide data. The finest goalkeepers, they proved, had been
Gianluigi Buffon and Iker Casillas.

Both men duly thanked the federation and went on with their jobs, as if to
say: “OK, so tell us something that we didn’t already know.” Casillas
collected his fifth Spanish league title, Buffon his fifth Serie A title and
the respective keepers from the two most recent World Cup winners finished
the 2011-12 season shaking hands as captains of the finalists at the
European championship. At the federation, even more credits were cashed into
their statistical savings accounts.

In the course of the 2012-13 European club campaign the duo who have shared
the summit of the sport’s